The bank left all its main rates unchanged, with its key refinancing rate remaining at 0% and the key deposit rate left at -0.4%.

The central bank said it expected "interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time."

Europe's central bank also confirmed that its programme of corporate bond buying would continue at least until March.

"Regarding non-standard monetary policy measures, the Governing Council confirms that the monthly asset purchases of €80 billion are intended to run until the end of March 2017, or beyond, if necessary," a statement released alongside the decision said.

It would have been an enormous shock if either of those rates changed on Thursday, but markets in Europe and across the world will now be waiting with bated breath to hear what the ECB's president, Mario Draghi, says about two key issues around its bond-buying programmes when he takes questions from the press at 2:30 p.m. CET (1:30 p.m. BST).

There also remains the question of the bank starting to taper its QE — essentially a gradual phasing out of its bond-buying programme before it officially comes to an end in March. Early in October, a report from Bloomberg suggested that the ECB would "probably gradually wind down bond purchases before the conclusion of quantitative easing, and may do so in steps of 10 billion euros ($11.2 billion) a month, according to eurozone central-bank officials."